


Strawberry Chapstick

by Oregano_Cactus



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Rated teen for swearing, banju are embarrassingly gay and ppl notice, banri's like an overaffectionate mean cat, itaru/yuki/kumon/banri povs!, izumi is exhausted as always, just nonstop fluff, kumon wants to forever burn his eyes out after seeing his older brother with banri, vignettes/snapshots of banju in mankai being gay, yuki's only joy in life is making fun of his fellow members
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24688291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oregano_Cactus/pseuds/Oregano_Cactus
Summary: “Oh, are we back to Settsu now? I told you, I think it’s cute! Strawberry tastes nice!”Banri jumps off the curb, savoring the last moments of their walk back to the dorms.“Plus, I kinda like tasting it when I kiss you, you know.”Snapshots of Banri and Juza's relationship, from the point of view of several of their fellow Mankai Company members and finally, Banri himself. They're very stupidly in love and have the recklessness only teenagers have, which leads to much scrutiny by their friends.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage, Hyoudou Juuza/Settsu Banri, Hyoudou Kumon & Nanao Taichi
Comments: 34
Kudos: 197





	Strawberry Chapstick

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a birthday present for my best friend! Happy birthday, Miles! 
> 
> Italics indicate speaking/thinking. 
> 
> If you enjoy this fic, please consider leaving comments/kudos!! I'd much appreciate it :3

Kumon stands in the doorway, frozen, as he watches his beloved older brother and the guy with the worst hair on the planet sleep in the same bed. 

_“Nii-chan…?”_ His voice trails off, unsure whether to sound confused or horrified at the thought that his brother and his sworn enemy would ever get along, and Juza finally stirs. 

_“What’s wrong, Kumon?”_ Juza mumbles, hand thrown over his eyes to prevent light from leaking in, and Kumon has to wait several seconds before his brain processes the question instead of the image of Banri behind Juza, who has apparently just draped an arm around him judging by the rustling noise. 

_“I…uh…ran out of pocket money, so I was wondering if you could lend me some, Taichi and i wanna go hang out at the mall…”_ Kumon’s words come out soft and stuttering, still in shock, and he wishes more than ever that he’d never come into his brother’s room this early in the first place. 

_“Hold on, I’ve got some lying around,”_ Juza says, still apparently half-out of it, and makes a move to get up and find the money when Banri makes a weird noise and slumps his entire body over Juza. _“Banri—Get off, asshole, I gotta go find some money—”_

Kumon opens his eyes very, very wide and gestures frantically, not wanting to see how much further they’d go. _“No, it’s fine! I—Uh, Taichi just texted me saying that he’d let me borrow some, it’s all good, thank you Nii-chan have a nice day good morning!”_ He dashes out of the room as fast as he can, deciding to burn out his retinas by way of the dimly lit arcade that he and Taichi had planned to go to that day. 

_(“It’s terrible, Taichi,”_ he bemoans later while they’re gunning down zombies at a frightening speed. _“I don’t ever want to see that again. That’s just wrong. I mean, Nii-chan with…him? I must have misseen something, right? Like, that can’t be real, right?”_

Taichi just pats him on the back, eyes looking entirely too old for someone their age. _“Taichi…?”_

He shakes his head, shifting his hand to rest on Kumon’s shoulder. _“Kumon.”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“Have you ever learned the exact point where a fistfight can devolve into really hardcore making out?”_

Taichi watches as Kumon’s expression morphs into horror, wearing a sympathetic smile on his head. _“I’ll buy you one of those radioactive green drinks later, to bleach your brain out. I’m already too far gone, but it might not be too late for you—Shit!”_ He snatches his gun back up, frantically firing at the screen. _“Being a part of Autumn Troupe means you see things,”_ he yells in between rattling gunfire, and Kumon desperately tries to drown his sorrows in unhealthy food and drink.) 

— 

Izumi feels a bit like laughing. Or crying, maybe. She doesn’t really know. 

_“Stop arguing, guys! It’s just one scene—”_

“ _One fuckin’ scene! That’s one of the most important ones! And this fucking daikon fucked it up!”_

_“Shut up, you messed up back there too. We gotta get through the runthrough first.”_

_“But, Ban-chan, if you just moved on—”_

_“Who gives a fuck! I’m saying that the nuance here is wrong!”_

She wishes that she had just followed what her best friend in college did and gotten a mechanical engineering degree. Then, maybe she wouldn’t be sitting in this practice room, watching two teenage boys argue for the fiftieth time that day, patience wearing thin. 

Meeting Sakyo’s eyes, she shares a thought: _“Do you think we should just leave it be?”_

Sakyo, equally exhausted, shares back: _“How much worse can it get.”_

Nodding and leaning back in her rickety Director’s chair, Izumi just watches as they keep fighting. She feels a little bad for Taichi, stuck playing mediator, but Taichi’s used to this—they all are, and are a little exhausted at this point. Normally, she’d help, but she’d just finished directing Summer, and while there had been many more smiles than Autumn, their energy was still off the charts. 

Keeping a careful eye on the boys, Izumi grabs her copy of the Autumn script, marking up little sections where she thought they could improve. Chewing on her pen, she gets so absorbed in the text that she only looks up when she realizes the whole room’s gone silent—save for the sound of heavy breathing and the gross sound of flesh-on-flesh. 

God fucking damnit, they’re making out again in the practice room. 

Juza’s got Banri shoved up against the mirror walls that they use for blocking during practice, Banri’s got a hand tangled in Juza’s hair, and she can see Sakyo out of the corner of her eye, threatening death if they put even the slightest crack in the mirror—full-panel mirrors were expensive, and if they were broken because of their stupid antics, there would be hell to pay. 

Taichi’s taken the opportunity to step away and take a sip of water, carefully shielding his eyes from view with a strategic magazine, and Omi’s just awkwardly staring at Izumi, wondering if they should do anything. 

They finally, _finally_ , move apart to breathe, and she’s pretty sure she just saw Banri’s knees give out a little bit, so she smiles brightly and marches directly up to them. 

_“Banri, Juza? If I may interject?”_ They stare at her sheepishly, nodding their heads. _“Make out later. You’re taking away from our valuable practice time, you know! And while I do admire your effort in clearly telegraphing your movements to the audience—Banri, the way you angled Juza to better show his expressions was excellent!—we still do have a show to perform, and I think we should all move on to the next scene.”_

Her smile doesn’t break, and neither does her eye contact with the two of them; she watches in satisfaction as their faces slowly flush and they separate with all the urgency of a sloth who had taken copious amounts of sleeping medicine. _“Perfect! Now, take it from right here, I’d noticed that Omi had a little bit of trouble articulating that line…”_

Sakyo had asked before what her secret to making them stop was, and she’d told him that it was just taking their act as far as possible until they gave in. See, they were fully willing to at least make out in the middle of the practice room in front of the entire Autumn Troupe, but that didn’t necessarily translate to anything further—for instance, they’d usually stop if someone had been narrating their every move like it was a sports match, although that wasn’t a tactic she’d resorted to yet. He’d shaken his head and said that he’d never understand her, and she’d shaken her head in return—you had to have a unique mind to deal with dozens of teenagers and grown men with the emotional capacity of teenagers, she said, and that might have led to her being a little incomprehensible. 

— 

_“Classic delinquent, you’re up next. Hurry up,”_ Yuki says, and hands another pin to Tenma, who had been designated Yuki’s costuming assistant of the day. _“Don’t complain, Tenma, or I’m sticking a pin in your hand again. I told you, it doesn’t actually hurt if you stick it in a callous, I know what I’m—Oh, thank you, Juza.”_

Yuki pins another fold of clothing with the cute bear pins that Muku had bought him the other day, stepping back to survey his work. Today was Autumn Troupe’s fitting day for their costumes, and he appreciated the cuteness among all of the overwhelming masculinity that the delinquents of Autumn tended to exude. 

The Neo Delinquent had already been fitted, and was fiddling with his phone in the corner, obviously bored out of his mind but not allowed to leave as troupe leader until everyone else was done. 

He tsks and pencils in another adjustment onto the costume, dumping his tape measure on Tenma’s hands. _“Why is it always the chest with you muscle-bound weirdos…”_ he mutters through the pins in his teeth. 

_“Sorry,”_ Juza tries to shrug, and Yuki quickly stills his shoulders. 

_“Idiot, don’t move!”_ he cries, readjusting a couple parts. _“You’ll mess up the fitting.”_

Yuki works steadily and quickly, nearly finishing with the costume’s adjustments in the next 15 minute chunk, when he notices a set of eyes on him. 

_“Tenma, who’s looking at me,”_ he whispers out of the corner of his mouth, and Tenma takes a second to pull another safety pin out of his pocket before responding. 

_“Banri’s looking at you, I think,”_ he whispers back in the most obvious stage-whisper Yuki’s ever heard. _“Or maybe at Juza?”_

At Juza? 

Yuki keeps an eye on the corner as he continues to work, and notices that it is indeed Banri’s eyes that are directed in his general direction, but…

They’re not directed at him, as he’d felt initially, but at Juza. Dammit, Tenma was right. 

_I wonder what’s so interesting,_ he muses to himself. _Costuming certainly isn’t terribly exciting for people like him._

It’s when he’s trying to figure out how to best drape the silk that he realizes in a flash what Banri’s staring at, and nearly starts cackling out loud. 

_Banri’s checking Juza out_ , he thinks, and nearly stabs Juza with a pin in his silent laughter. _Holy shit._

He keeps track of Banri’s eyes, watches as they slide up and down Juza’s body which was currently fitted in an admittedly extremely flattering costume(Yuki was nothing if not aware of his strengths, after all), and tries to stifle his laughter when Banri doesn’t even notice as his mouth slowly drops open. 

He works a little harder, pays attention to more detail with the extra set of eyes on his work, and by the time he finishes, Juza looks absolutely stunning. 

_“So? How’s it look? How’s it feel, huh?”_ Yuki says, stalking around Juza, and keeps one critical eye on his own work and the other eye on Banri. _“Hey, Neo Delinquent. You’re done with your fitting, come check this out and tell me how it looks.”_

Cackling silently, Yuki desperately tries to keep a straight face as Banri stutters and picks his way around piles of fabric to stand in front of Juza. _“Strike a pose like you might in your play,”_ Yuki commands, and Juza obediently moves as if to draw a blade on Banri any instant, extending his arms to their near-full length. _“Good, hold it there so I can make sure you don’t have any seams loose.”_

Of course, it’s also a ploy to mess with the Autumn leader, and Yuki can _see_ Banri’s mouth go dry as Juza stands in front of him, looking beautiful and deadly. _“So, leader? What’re your thoughts?”_

It’s a bit cruel to put him on the spot like that, but Yuki had to get through about 4 more fittings, so he might as well make this fun for himself. _“I, uh—I think it looks. Nice. I like the…fit,”_ Banri manages to get out, and Yuki stifles another laugh. 

_“D’you think it suits me well enough? I feel like I don’t really look good in it,”_ Juza frowns, and normally Yuki would stab him with a pin for doubting his ability to make anyone look good with the proper outfit but Banri waves his hands, and he refrains just for a bit. 

_“Nah, you look really hot, don’t worry,”_ Banri says, and then freezes. God, he should ask Tenma if Banri could join Summer with how hilarious he was being, Yuki thinks. _“I mean—! You look fine! You look like you’re hot, but that’s probably just the fabric, get some lighter cloth and it’ll prob’ly be fixed, or—”_

“ _He’ll be fine, Neo Delinquent. Calm down,”_ Yuki says, offering him an out. Banri takes the opportunity swiftly and retreats back to his corner, and Yuki notices that from that point on, he _only_ stares at Juza when it didn’t seem like anyone else was watching. 

He should mention this situation to Villager C, he thinks as he cleans up his supplies later. It’d probably make for a good comedy scene in their plays at some point. 

— 

Almost everyone in Mankai is gathered to watch Tenma’s show, like they do every Tuesday, and Itaru’s just about to settle in with his supply of shitty snacks when he happens to glance to the side and sees Banri doing some weird shit. 

_“Oi, senpai,”_ he calls to Chikage, who’s filling a glass with water. _“Can you get me the thing?”_

Chikage pushes up his glasses and sighs, but gets him his Cola anyways, so he counts that as a victory. _“Thank you, you’re the best,”_ he says, trying to give him a kiss when he returns to the couch. Chikage swiftly dodges, pressing the freezing-cold soda to his neck instead. _“Jeeze! Such an unromantic senior, giving me the sweet kiss of sugar instead of you.”_

“ _Shut up, such pick-up lines don’t suit you,”_ Chikage retorts, and then gives him a kiss on his forehead anyways. _Such an unromantic senior_ , his brain echoes once more, then his thoughts turn once again to whatever’s going on about two sofa seats away. 

Tenma’s voice is blaring in the background, yelling something about how his girlfriend had broken up with him, and Banri’s currently apparently attempting to merge his body with Juza’s. 

Huh. 

_He’s like a cat_ , Itaru thinks as he watches. _One of those overly needy asshole cats._

Because Banri’s pushing his way up against Juza’s side, tucking himself into the crook of his arm, but whenever Juza moves to tug him closer he just yells and moves away. The process is a little frustrating to watch, honestly, but it’s honestly more exciting than the advertisements that had just started, so Itaru forges forward in his quest to figure out what the hell they’re doing. 

Oh, now Banri was attempting to sit against Juza. 

The ways of teenagers were certainly mysterious, but he didn’t know if it was an average high schooler thing to try to push and punch one’s way into cuddling with someone. _Just give up and ask_ , Itaru wants to yell, but he’s in no position to be giving any sort of advice, seeing as Chikage had just thrown his third scarily accurate ninja-star-made-of-candy-wrappers of the night at him as some form of romantic seduction. 

After Banri finally succeeds in bullying his way into tucking himself against Juza, Itaru just watches with a vaguely judgemental eye as he relaxes his entire body, looking like some sort of Banri primordial soup. _It’s scary how much he acts like a cat_ , Itaru thinks, knowing he’d 100% be scolded if he ever said that outloud. Still, it’s hard to deny those thoughts when Banri tilts his head back into Juza’s hands that are stroking his hair, looking for all the world like some asshole swearing cat getting pet. 

He quits trying to solve the mystery of what’s going on when he hears a loud groan and Summer Troupe erupts in laughter, teasing Tenma for saying things like _“I’ll be your flying star”_ while Tenma yells and flushes bright red. _“Our talented leader!”_ rings out, and Itaru gets a sense that this might be an often repeated phrase in the Summer Troupe discussions. 

When he chances a glance sideways later, Juza’s pressing kisses to Banri’s head, and Banri’s near-asleep, blinking long and slow. 

_Teenagers_ , he sighs. He never understood them when he was one, and now that he’s some semblance of an adult, he sure as hell didn’t understand them now. 

— 

_“Do you want the strawberry or the chocolate milk,”_ Banri calls out, and his voice rings too unnaturally loud through the near-empty 24 hour convenience store. 

_“Strawberry,”_ Juza says back, and tosses another packet of cheap cookies into the handbasket. 

_“Ah yeah, you always do get strawberry,”_ Banri laughs, and places his own bag of chips next to the cookies. 

At night, when it’s just them, and there isn’t anyone around to impress or fight, it’s easier to let his guard down. 

It’s easier to be nice and pay for Juza’s stuff, it’s easier to give him a kiss on the cheek as they comb through the admittedly meager pickings in the conbi, and it’s easier to say things to him like _“your hair looks nicer down”_. 

_“Hey, this packet’s close to expiring, split some ice cream with me instead,”_ Banri says, and puts back the packet of cookies Juza had picked up earlier. _“C’mon, I know you like that one cookies and creme flavor.”_

_“...Sure, but just once.”_

They walk back together underneath a sky full of stars, night air cool on their skin, and Banri laughs as Juza takes a bite of his ice cream “ _to stop it from dripping”_. 

_“It’s not gonna drip, idiot. I’d lick it before that happens.”_

“ _Well, you could’ve missed it,”_ Juza says petulantly, and Banri takes a bite of his in retaliation. _“Hey!”_

“ _Revenge,”_ Banri says, _“is a dish best served cold.”_

_“Asshole.”_

Juza ignores him for another 5 minutes before Banri wheedles his way up to his side, smiling as wide as he can because Juza’s told him before it makes him look kinda creepy. _“Don’t be mad at me, Juza.”_

“ _You took my ice cream, so this is my revenge.”_

_“I’m sorry!”_ He laughs again and presses a kiss to his cheek in apology. Only the cicadas are around to watch them now, so he doesn’t mind being affectionate. 

_“No you’re not,”_ Juza grumbles, but he turns Banri’s face and gives him a kiss back anyways. 

It’s a couple more steps before he realizes and asks: _“Juza, why do your lips taste like strawberry when I know you bought the same cookie flavor you always do?”_

Fascinatingly, Juza’s face starts to flush red (or it might be the orange streetlight shining over them, but it’s a similar effect either way), and Banri starts cackling. _“Aw, was I not supposed to know that? Huh? Was that a secret?”_

_“Shut up, asshole,”_ Juza shoves him away. _“It was a gift from my aunt a couple weeks ago, who still seems to think I’m 5 years old.”_

_“But you’re still the one who decided to use it!”_ Banri’s nearly doubled over laughing, ice cream having dripped to the ground minutes ago. 

_“Strawberry’s nice,”_ Juza says, clearly embarrassed. _“Shut the fuck up, you’re just jealous.”_

Banri straightens up when he realizes Juza’s walking ahead without him, swinging the grocery bag on his wrist as he jogs to catch up. _“Hey, it’s cute. I think it suits you.”_

“ _Don’t try the pickup lines on me, Settsu.”_

_“Oh, are we back to Settsu now? I told you, I think it’s cute! Strawberry tastes nice!”_ Banri jumps off the curb, savoring the last moments of their walk back to the dorms. _“Plus, I kinda like tasting it when I kiss you, you know.”_

Juza’s silent for a couple minutes before he just responds, _“When I kiss you, you mean?”_ and pulls ahead again, and Banri’s left chasing after him. 

_“What the fuck—no, you’re not beating me in that! Get back here, Hyodo!”_ he calls, and catches up to him in an instant. _“Race you back to our room.”_

They have to clean up the ice cream, later, when it’s gotten all sticky and onto Banri’s jacket. He accepts the exchange with grace, treating it as a worthy trade of knowledge for the fact that Juza uses strawberry chapstick. 

When he kisses him goodnight later, he notices that Juza still hasn’t taken it off, and smiles against their lips. 

_“What’re you laughing at, Banri.”_

_“Nothing, nothing. Go to sleep.”_

Banri pauses. 

_“Also, I’m considering if I should get you more flavors of chapstick.”_

A thud of a pillow being thrown. 

_“Fuck off, go to sleep.”_

_“Goodnight to you too, asshole.”_

— 

Banri sneaks another kiss during practice later, and is oddly enamored to find out that Juza apparently continues to use the strawberry chapstick. 

The rest of his troupe is not as thrilled, and they are quickly separated, but— 

Juza still smiles and casually suggests they make another conbi run later that night because they have finals coming up and need to pull some all-nighters, and Banri smiles back, and they continue their routine happily together, teasing over ice cream and soda and everything else underneath the glowing neon lights that illuminate them both. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for finishing my fic!
> 
> Some fun facts, as always:   
> \- Kumon pretends he does not see it for the next 3 weeks until he watches them make out on stage during a play apparently "because it enhances the connection between their characters", then he stops denying it and just starts crying instead.   
> \- I considered writing Banri kissing Juza in the opening snapshot, but decided to spare poor Kumon.   
> \- Izumi eventually gets one of those sticky hand slingshot things and just slaps Banju with it whenever they're being gay during practice.   
> \- Yuki's voice is always hard to write...I constantly had the tab for his nicknames pulled up during that section T__T  
> \- Banri nearly flubs a line when he sees Juza act in the costume for the first time. Autumn doesn't let him live that one down.   
> \- I think it's so adorable to imagine Mankai watching Tenma's dramas...they make fun of him for saying stupid things but they congratulate him on his talent...he finally gets appreciation for his talents...  
> \- Banri buys Juza a 12-pack of flavored chapsticks from Justice (that one store for preteen girls) and Juza nearly punches him but uses them anyways. His favorite is a toss-up between strawberry and creamsicle. 
> 
> If you enjoyed reading my fic, please please leave a comment or kudos!! I genuinely do reread comments for months and months afterwards, and I appreciate every single one of them--they're what keeps me motivated to write. Plus, I do love talking about Banju and writing!! So please, don't hesitate to leave a comment, long or short; I'll appreciate them all the same. Thank you again for reading!


End file.
